|
Caribbean Islands Transportation, Communications, and Electricity
As a result of Trinidad and Tobago's rapid economic growth, the
islands' physical infrastructure generally lagged behind other
sectors of the economy, causing various bottlenecks or failures in
the country's transportation, communications, and electrical
systems. For example, Trinidad and Tobago's road system tended to
be concentrated along the industrial ports of Trinidad's west
coast. The country's road system was constrained by three corridors
of mountains (see Geography, this ch.). Most major roads in
Trinidad were north-south. In the late 1980s, only two large east-
west roads were in place, making travel through the center of the
country more difficult. On Tobago, one major loop road existed from
Scarborough to Roxborough to Plymouth, with one major offshoot to
the Crown Point Airport on the southwestern tip of the island. The
two islands contained more than 8,000 kilometers of roads, of which
roughly half were paved with locally produced asphalt.
Approximately 4,000 kilometers of roads were not paved, of which
three-quarters were with unimproved earth and one-quarter with
improved earth. Poor road conditions in the country, especially
during the rainy season, contributed to the islands' high accident
rate. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the country averaged over
5,000 accidents annually, and 1984 marked the first time in more
than 10 years that the rate had dropped. Similarly, narrow, winding
streets and the extremely high number of automobiles made Port-of-
Spain infamous for its traffic jams.
Unlike most developing countries where public transportation
systems dominate, the private automobile was the most typical means
of transportation in Trinidad and Tobago. There were some 180,000
registered automobiles on the islands in the late 1980s, and some
8,000 new automobiles were being sold annually. It was estimated
that Trinidad and Tobago possessed one of the highest number of
automobiles per capita in the Western Hemisphere, a result of the
local assembly of over 15,000 automobiles annually, destined for
the domestic market. In addition, cheap, subsidized gasoline made
motoring relatively inexpensive for many Trinidadians. As noted,
however, the country's infrastructure did not expand as fast as
automobile sales, and inadequate parking facilities, poor road
conditions, and old narrow bridges all contributed to general
congestion and the high accident rate. There was a public bus
service operated by the Public Transport Service Corporation, but
mass transportation services were generally deficient.
Nevertheless, bus services were expanding rapidly in the 1980s, and
the number of passengers doubled in the first half of the decade.
Route taxis or minibuses, visible throughout the Caribbean, were
generally available. Since 1968 there has been no major railroad,
but a small loop of railroad operated for agricultural purposes in
San Fernando.
An essential part of the economy's oil- and gas-based
development strategy was the transportation of those resources via
pipelines. In the mid-1980s, Trinidad possessed over 1,000
kilometers of pipeline for crude oil and 19 kilometers of pipeline
for refined petroleum products. There also existed more than 900
kilometers of gas pipelines, construction of which occurred in
conjunction with the development of gas-based petrochemicals at the
Point Lisas complex.
In the late 1980s, Trinidad and Tobago had a total of six
airfields, five of which were usable and three of which had
permanent surface runways. Piarco International Airport's 3,600-
meter runway could accommodate the largest of commercial aircraft
in the 1980s and was a busy airport because of the great number of
North American and South American flights that connected via the
airport. A new passenger terminal and a 2,700-meter runway were
being built in the late 1980s at Crown Point Airport in an effort
to upgrade that airport to international status. Trinidad and
Tobago in the late 1980s maintained some fourteen major
transportation aircraft. Several major West European, North
American, and South American airlines operated regular flights to
Trinidad, and many other carriers transited the island. Tobago was
expected to be the site of more regular routes as the island's
airport gained international status. Caricargo, a joint venture
between the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados,
offered air freight services from Piarco International Airport.
There were seven major ports on Trinidad and one on Tobago. The
central shipping location for the nation was Port-of-Spain. Port-
of-Spain's modern facilities included advanced handling equipment,
extensive warehousing, ancillary sheds, refrigeration areas,
bunkering, and freshwater facilities. The port contained only eight
berths in the late 1980s, however, and congestion was common
because of the high number of ships bunkering in Port-of-Spain en
route to North America or South America. Port development was an
ongoing activity. Other major ports were specific-use facilities
and included Point Lisas, Pointe-à-Pierre, Chaguaramas, Point
Fortin, Brighton, Tembladora, and Scarborough. Point Lisas
specialized in fertilizers, chemicals, petrochemicals, and sugar.
Pointe-à-Pierre and Chaguaramas were ports of entry, and the latter
also served as a timber and bauxite transshipment site. Point
Fortin handled primarily oceangoing oil tankers, Brighton served
the asphalt industry, and Tembladora was a privately owned port
used as a transshipment point for Guyanese and Surinamese bauxite.
Numerous shipping companies made port calls to the country, and
Trinidad and Tobago was a member of the regional West Indies
Shipping Corporation (WISCO--see Appendix C).
Trinidad and Tobago contained a rather sophisticated
communications system. In the late 1980s, the two islands had
90,000 installed telephones, or about 7 phones per 100 people, a
ratio higher than Jamaica's but much lower than the rate in the
Bahamas or Barbados. Domestic telephone services were operated by
the state-owned Telephone Company of Trinidad and Tobago. Periodic
breaks in local telephone service were not uncommon. Trinidad and
Tobago External Telecommunications Company (Textel), a joint
venture between the government and the British firm Cable and
Wireless, provided excellent international service, including
direct dialing via tropospheric links and an Atlantic Ocean
satellite station. Telegram and telex services were also offered
through Textel.
The country's mass media included one television station
servicing five channels, two major radio stations operating four
channels, and numerous daily newspapers and weeklies. The
government-run Trinidad and Tobago Television Company offered over
seventy hours of weekly viewing, including many locally produced
programs. Television was popular, and television sets were common,
numbering over 300,000 in the late 1980s. The government's National
Broadcasting Service was the most important station, operating on
both 610 AM and 100 FM and reaching an estimated 650,000 listeners.
Other major stations included Radio Trinidad, operated by a
subsidiary of the British firm Rediffusion, and Radio 95 FM, both
of which were broadcast over parts of the Windward Islands and
Leeward Islands as well. Two smaller radio stations also broadcast.
There were an estimated 350,000 radios in Trinidad and Tobago in
the late 1980s.
The country's high literacy rate allowed the printed media to
hold an important role in the dissemination of information.
Trinidad and Tobago had the highest per capita consumption of
newsprint in the Caribbean. The country's four major newspapers
enjoyed a daily circulation of 240,000. The Trinidad
Guardian and the Trinidad and Tobago Express were
responsible for two-thirds of that total. Established in 1917, the
Trinidad Guardian was the oldest newspaper on the two
islands and played an influential role throughout the twentieth
century. Although officially independent, the newspaper was often
branded as pro-colonial, "white," and status quo during the
ascendancy of Eric Williams and the independence movement. The
Trinidad and Tobago Express, established in 1967, came to
usurp some of the readership of the Trinidad Guardian; in
the late 1980s, each paper enjoyed a circulation of 80,000. The
country's two afternoon newspapers were the Evening News and
the Sun, each with a circulation of 40,000; they were owned
by the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad and Tobago
Express, respectively. Several weekly newspapers, such as the
Bomb, circulated as well.
Trinidad and Tobago surpassed Britain in per capita consumption
of total energy, and in 1985 its per capita installed capacity and
consumption of electricity was the highest in Latin America and the
Caribbean. As of 1986, installed capacity stood at 1.17 million
kilowatts; 2.72 billion kilowatts were produced in that same year,
or 2,260 kilowatts per capita. Virtually all electricity was
powered via three stations on Trinidad. Over 70 percent of
electricity was provided by natural gas turbines, and the remainder
was powered by steam. Trinidad and Tobago was one of only three
countries in the Western Hemisphere with no hydroelectricity or
hydroelectric potential. The electric system was interconnected
through power stations between Port-of-Spain and Penal by one 132-
kilovolt and three 66-kilovolt transmission lines, as well as
through a small central substation. A standby diesel plant was
located on Tobago. Tobago was linked electrically to Trinidad by
two forty-one-kilometer submarine cables of thirty-three kilowatts.
In 1977 the system was expanded by the installation of an eighty-
eight-megawatt power plant at the Point Lisas industrial park.
Access to electricity was very good and was estimated to be
over 90 percent. Electricity was produced and distributed primarily
by the government's Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission
(T&TEC). The T&TEC operated at a financial loss because of the high
operating expenses that resulted from the country's excess
installed capacity. For example, in 1985 the country utilized only
42 percent of its installed capacity. Private companies produced
less than 5 percent of total electricity generated in the 1980s.
According to government data, industry consumed nearly one-half of
all electricity, followed by home use with nearly 30 percent,
commercial use with 10 percent, and the balance for street lighting
and other purposes.
Data as of November 1987
|
